Sculptor's Cave, Lossiemouth, United Kingdom

The Sculptor's Cave is a sandstone cave on the south shore of the Moray Firth near the small settlement of Covesea, between Burghead and Lossiemouth in Moray. It is named after the Pictish carvings incised on the walls of the cave near its entrances. There are seven groups of carvings dating from the 6th or 7th century, including fish, crescent and V-rod, pentacle, triple oval, step, rectangle, disc and rectangle, flower, and mirror patterns, some very basic but others more sophisticated.

The cave is 20m deep and 13.5m wide with a 5.5m high roof and can be entered by two parallel 11m long passages, each 2-3m wide. It lies at the base of 30m high cliffs and is largely inaccessible at high tide.

The cave was first excavated between 1928 and 1930 by Sylvia Benton, who discovered evidence of two main periods of activity on the site: the first during the late Bronze Age, and the second during the late Roman Iron Age, between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD.

References:

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User Reviews

Ross Mcknight (7 months ago)
Beautiful scenery, but difficult and slightly dangerous to access.

piotr fudała (7 months ago)
Beautiful place. Perfect for taking wonderful photos. Accessible via the trail from Lossiemouth or by canoe

Mark Reilly (8 months ago)
Love walking along this coast. Good for the heart and soul.

Michael Bell (12 months ago)
An absolutely fantastic site! An amazing snapshot of the distant past, going back several milenia. Pictish symbols, mummified remains, a Roman coin hoard. and much more.

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